I Saved Her
by Electric Pop
Summary: Draco reflects on a day after the final battle where he had an intimate conversation with Hermione. ONE SHOT, DHr.


The final battle had taken down the wizarding world's biggest threat, Lord Voldemort, but with Voldemort went Ronald Weasley and currently in the hospital in intensive care was Harry Potter. Hermione was anxious to see if Harry was okay yet, but Dumbledore had made her promise to stay at Hogwarts until further notice. While the final battle was over, there were still death eaters who wanted to avenge Voldemort's death. I was sick of the tension in the Slytherin common room, as it turned out I wasn't much help to the Slytherins when Voldemort attacked, most of them were still mad at me. So I took off and headed for the Astronomy Tower with high hopes that I could be alone and reflect a little, but no such luck.

I'd heard that one of the Golden Trio's members had fallen during battle and while none of them were my favorite people, I knew what it was like to lose a loved one. My father murder my mother just seven brief months before the battle. Lucius said that he came home one night and found Narcissa lying on the floor with a pool of blood leaking from her wrist, but I knew better. I knew that my father was done with my mother, she even told me a year before her murder that she was sure Lucius was through with her. It hurt to go to my mother's funeral and express the love I had for a woman I saw only a handful of times a year. My mother and I spoke through owls, often intercepted by my father, but there was still a connection there. Shortly after her funeral my father told me that I shouldn't get close to anyone because they would all leave me. That was when my hatred for him formed.

When I walked into the Astronomy Tower I was taken aback to see a large shadow reflecting on the walls from such a tiny figure sitting in the open window, long curls trickling down the person's back. I knew immediately that it was Hermione Granger, no one else had frizzy hair like hers and it wasn't hard to understand why she was here in the first place. "Hello," I remember speaking softly, almost self-consciously. She didn't even look at me, she just uncurled her legs from beneath her body and let them dangle outside the window. A faint "hello" echoed through the tower, but nothing more was said. "Are you okay, Granger?" It was the first time I'd ever shown an ounce of compassion for the girl.

"Do I look okay?" I was not surprised to see her taking my sympathy and throwing it back in my face. "Ron and Harry were my two best friends," Hermione turned around in the window and jumped down, glaring up at me with tears glistening on her cheeks, "now one of them is dead and the other might die in St. Mungo's. You tell me, Draco Malfoy, am I okay?"

I shook my head, mentally wincing, "I guess you're not." She let out a frustrated sigh and threw her hands up, turning to look out the window so she wouldn't have to stare at me.

"Just go away, Malfoy," she sniffled, "you didn't even like Ron or Harry."

"I was brought up not to like them," I replied sharply, "they were heroes, I was a villain. People don't change over night, Granger, but I am sorry that you lost Weasley." She only laughed bitterly at me, crossing her arms over her chest and looking out the window. If I had known better I would have walked over to her and pulled her away, but Hermione and I were never close, never did we share a kind anything.

She seemed lost for a few minutes, no words being exchanged between us as we stood there in silence. Hermione crawled back to her spot on the window, looking down at the ground as if she would jump. "I miss him," she announced sadly, "he proposed, you know." I was shocked to hear that they were even that far in their relationship, they'd only been together for a couple years, at least as far as I knew. I wasn't aware of their relationship before they brought it out to Hogwarts. "On Christmas morning," she began, "he had Ginny get me out of bed and drag me downstairs. I was cold and tired but Ginny kept saying that she had a big surprise for me, so I just kept walking."

I didn't want to hear the rest of the story because I knew what it was. I can recall every word she told me that night in exact detail, but that doesn't matter to anyone in Azkaban. I sit here and remember Hermione Granger everyday and I continuously replay her story over and over again like some recording, because to me, that's what it is.

"The common room was even colder than my dormitory and I shivered as I walked, but Ginny didn't seem to mind. She just pulled me to the sofa, sat me down and told me to wait. Thank Merlin a fire was roaring, or else I might have frozen to death." She chuckled sadly at the thought before sighing, continuing. "Ron came out a couple minutes later and sat beside me, placing his arm around my shoulders and letting me lean my head on his chest. I can't remember what happened after that, but I woke up a couple hours later with the common room watching us both." I was in awe of how public Hermione had gotten, I always thought she was more of a private type of person. "Ron was sitting on the table in front of the sofa, smiling at me. Then he asked me to marry him, just like that, with everyone watching. I was so happy that I jumped on him, I knocked him off the table and smothered him with kisses." I knew she was crying because her voice cracked, "And I told him yes."

Their love was so pure that I almost wished it was my love story, because I'd never had one. I spent most of my days looking for a girl to shag during the nights, and most of the time I did it to distract myself from the life my father was preparing me for. Nonetheless, there was more to what Hermione had to say, she pulled me out of my selfish reverie to tell me as well. "When he died I couldn't stop crying," she wasn't pulling herself together right now, either, "but when he was buried a couple days ago I asked the men to bury him with my ring. I hadn't gotten around to buying one for him yet, so I thought it would be a nice tribute." I wanted to grab Hermione and pull her into a hug, to tell her that it was alright and that she'd be okay eventually, but I didn't have the chance. "I want to be with him again."

Hermione stood up and I thought she was going to coming out of the window, but she didn't. "Now I will be," and I watched a tear slide down her face and drop on the floor when she turned to look at me, "thank you, Draco, for listening." Those were the last words I heard her say before she jumped out of the window. I was paralyzed for a moment, trying to realize what she had just done. The moment I figured it out I rushed to the window, looking down to see her body crumbled and bloody, dead on impact. I stood in front of that window and looked down on her for an hour before someone found me and immediately I was carted off to Azkaban. Rumor around Hogwarts was that I pushed Hermione out of the window, that I killed the muggleborn because I was a death eater.

But the truth was that heartache had pushed her over the edge, that she used me to openly express her feelings to someone who wasn't Ron for the first time in her life. The first few days in Azkaban were the worst, but now I sit here three years later with the image of Hermione's lifeless body in my head, always there, always perched on the top of my thoughts. I miss Hermione, I didn't know her well, but her story was pure and I fell in love with her that night. It scares me to think like that, which is why I'm sometimes thankful when the dementors come soul-stealing in the dead of night. I'm always left with the image of Hermione just before she jumped, tearful and sad, but appreciative of what she'd been given at the last second.

In a way, I saved Hermione Granger, I just wish I could save myself.

**Author's Note**: This is my first Draco/Hermione fanfiction, I hoped you liked it.  
It was kind of sad, but that's how it is supposed to be. Please review.


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